The Future for SavaSeniorCare?

New Normal?

SavaSeniorCare continues to divest in the skilled nursing space after moving a 29-asset long-term care portfolio last year. However, it remains one of the largest providers of short-term and long-term health care with SNFs in 23 states. Sava has been around a long time. No one knows if they will adapt and survive.

Ray Thivierge, SavaSeniorCare’s chief strategy officer, told Skilled Nursing News about the “new normal”:

“I think the truth for most of the industry is that we thought by now we would be at the new normal. We knew occupancy was going to be somewhat diminished from where we were but I think now there’s this realization that our long-term care occupancy may never recover.”

Dialysis and other Services

SavaSeniorCare has agreed with dialysis entities to provide services at nursing homes. This will save transport money and be safer for residents. It is a great idea for the future of long term care.

“We’ve looked at renal care, in-house dialysis, because I think that there’s always going to be a demand for that in the population we serve. That’s been an area of focus for us. We also continue to look at dementia care and dementia programming, because, again, there’s always going to be that population of folks that require long-term care in an institutionalized setting in order to get the care they need.”

Aside from that, the programming is being driven by local markets and by where we feel we need to enhance the services that are being offered with our acute care partners. We’re looking at our partners, both upstream and downstream for hospitals, and then our home care and perhaps sometimes our hospice providers, to ensure that we’re filling in the continuum.

I think dialysis is an example of a service or need that SNFs can provide that for some patients is not possible to be provided in the home. That population is always going to be there and end-stage renal disease is one of the fastest growing segments of the population – and I think it’s going to continue to be something that we’re going to deal with.

I think the industry in general is seeing this as well. You can look at the number of companies that are coming up just to support the industry. Folks like Concerto [Renal Services] and DaVita and others who are expanding into SNF care, it’s because there is a recognition that the population will require skilled care and extended stay.

I think the industry as a whole is really looking at that and considering how we can be a better provider of care to those residents who had traditionally been sent out to the dialysis clinics.